Netanyahu: I see no urgency in unveiling Trump peace plan

Speaking to reporters in Lithuania, PM Netanyahu says it's Trump's choice whether to present the peace plan for Israel and the PA.

Elad Benari, Canada, 24/08/18 20:17

Binyamin Netanyahu

Alex Kolomoisky/POOL

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said on Friday that he does not see "urgency" in presenting the peace plan of U.S. President Donald Trump at the present time. His remarks were made at a briefing with reporters in Lithuania.

"It's his business if he wants to promote it. From time to time he says things about it and it can come, even though I do not see urgency in this matter,” the Prime Minister said.

“The Americans are thinking about it, they are not blind, but I do not know - when they suggest it, we will see,” he added.

Asked whether there is any truth to the reports that Trump will unveil the peace plan or parts of it at the UN General Assembly next month, Netanyahu replied, “I do not know anything about that.”

The Trump administration has been working on the peace plan for Israel and the Palestinian Authority but has yet to make it public.

A source recently said that the U.S. National Security Council has published a tender to hire experts for a steering committee to be established for the plan. The committee would allegedly be chaired by Middle East special envoy Jason Greenblatt.

According to the source, the administration would not be able to present the final peace plan until 2019.

National Security Spokesperson Garrett Marquis later told Arutz Sheva that the report was false.

Greenblatt recently tweeted that “no one will be fully pleased with our proposal, but that’s the way it must be if real peace is to be achieved. Peace can only succeed if it is based on reality.”

Trump hinted at a rally in West Virginia this week that Israel will have to pay a "high price" in its negotiations with the PA in return for his decision to move the American embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, though he did not specify what that “high price” would be.

(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)